"I love to paint. Anything else, I'm no good at all," he said in a film about him directed by filmmaker Pamela Tom called "Tyrus" that's premiering at San Francisco's historic Castro Theatre. But you probably know him from a different film.

Wong was the lead artist for "Bambi."

"The background is basic Chinese brush painting," said Asian Art Museum Commissioner David Lei. "A few strokes, colors, to show emotion, and that really transformed animation."

It wasn't an easy road.

As a child entering the U.S., Wong was detained for a month on Angel Island and separated from his father.

"You know, every day I stayed there was just miserable, miserable. I hated that place," he said in the documentary.